Leaving Earth: Going Spatial

What would it mean to leave this planet?m16 image by travis rector.  correction layers added by mark hannaNot just in orbit or for a period of months, but somewhere far away to not return for years or not at all?

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield said that the biggest challenge of a trip to Mars would be coping with the isolation. hadfield“Within a month or so you won’t be able to have a real-time conversation ever again with Earth, the delay will be so long…So that crew within weeks will become Martians psychologically. They will no longer be of Earth.”
Shuttle launch pilot“How do you keep your crew from going crazy?”
IMG_3120We define our sense of self through a context. What is the context of no longer being here?